A Christmas Revelation
by Cithara
Summary: Harry makes a startling discovery at Christmas time.


A Christmas Revelation

"I'm not getting up."

"Must we go through this every morning?"

"I hate getting up in the dark. It isn't natural."

"Nevertheless, I fear we must."

"Just because you're an early riser," Harry grumbled, burrowing deeper into the warm body wrapped around him. "Up with the lark, you oddball."

"Your terms of endearment really do need work," Severus' deep voice rumbled into his ear.

Harry smiled and allowed himself a moment to indulge in the feel of Severus' body pressed against his own. It was cold in the dungeons, especially in winter, but his partner's body was surprisingly capable of producing heat like a furnace.

"It's the last day of term, the last day you'll have to get up this early for a couple of weeks," Severus said, running a hand up and down Harry's side.

"No one will notice if I'm not there," Harry said, his body starting to react to the light touches the man was making over his skin.

"You're the teacher," Severus countered, his voice tinged with amusement.

Harry turned himself around in Severus' arms and looked up at the man with whom he'd been conducting a relationship for the past year and a half. Severus was always annoyingly alert in the morning and always looked as though he'd been awake for hours. Harry himself woke up looking as though he'd been dragged through a hedge backwards, complete with puffy eyes and dark circles. He didn't truly become human until he'd had at least two cups of Severus' strong coffee.

"They'd manage without me," Harry argued, the idea of staying in bed with Severus for the day becoming more and more appealing.

"Get up, you awful reprobate!" Severus said, giving Harry's backside a squeeze for good measure.

"And you say my terms of endearment need work," Harry said with a laugh. "Can't I persuade you to be a little late this morning?" Harry asked, rolling his hips and pressing himself up against Severus.

"Out of bed, now," Severus growled, his resolve quite clearly hanging on by a thread.

"Oh fine, fine! I'm getting up you old misery. I expect to be fully compensated this evening though," Harry said, leaning up and pressing a kiss to the end of Severus' nose before wriggling out from underneath the man and scrambling out of bed.

He made his way across the cold stone floor to the en-suite and relieved himself before jumping in the shower. He always showered first while Severus made breakfast and Severus would hop in after they had eaten.

They had been living together for a few months. Harry had been beyond surprised when Severus had asked him to join him in his dungeon quarters but he had been so happy he'd jumped at the chance.

People had warned him that it was too soon, that he would come to regret jumping into it so early on, but he hadn't regretted his decision once. It had only really been Ron who had been supportive, Ron who had had faith in the relationship from the beginning.

Perhaps it was because Ron had a unique perspective on the matter, being in love with a Slytherin too. People had questioned his relationship with Draco numerous times and they had faced some startling vitriol from the press and public alike.

Harry and Severus had faced their fair share of cynicism and backlash after their relationship had been announced. People had accused Severus of having some kind of hold over him while Harry himself had been accused of being hopelessly naïve and possibly needing a father figure. It didn't matter; Harry knew the truth.

He had fallen head over heels in love with the man and had found himself in a relationship with a person who was more loving than he had ever expected him to be. They were, perhaps against all odds, happy together, and Harry had never looked back.

"Mm, smells wonderful," Harry said, emerging from their bedroom to find Severus laying the small table in the corner of the sitting room.

Severus always made Harry porridge with milk and honey and made two poached eggs on toast for himself. He made strong, potent coffee, which was just what Harry needed first thing in the morning, and made a juice that Harry hadn't yet discovered what it contained but that was delicious, nevertheless. It was a ritual that had established itself early on in their cohabitation and it gave Harry a warm, tingly feeling that he couldn't quite describe.

"Perfect, as usual," Harry said with a smile as he took his first mouthful of porridge. "Have you got much on today?"

Severus shook his head as he took a delicate sip of coffee. "Two double lessons – one this morning and one this afternoon. Both 7th years and I've promised them something of a respite."

Harry's eyebrows rose and he said with amusement, "Don't tell me you're going soft."

Severus fixed him with a hard look that had nothing like the kind of effect it might have once had. "Perish the thought," he said with the kind of slow drawl that always did things to Harry's central nervous system. "I merely wished to have a break myself on the last day of term."

Harry nodded with a smile and tucked into his porridge. Severus always read the paper while they ate and Harry normally went over his lesson plans for the day. Today, however, he was more than happy to arse around in all his classes, so he contented himself with a leisurely breakfast.

He'd been teaching at Hogwarts for a little over two years and, surprisingly, had found a friend in Severus when the two men found themselves colleagues all of a sudden. He had expected his return to the school to be met with hostility or, at the very least, indifference, but Severus had welcomed him with a handshake and with more cordiality than he had never shown.

Harry rather suspected that the end of the war a few years prior might have contributed to the man's change in attitude. With a lifetime's pressure removed from Severus' shoulders he was freer than he had been in years. It was true that he would never be a nice man, or even one that most would want to spend time with, but he had changed and Harry was the main beneficiary of those changes.

When he was done with his porridge, Harry flicked through the post that had arrived that morning. There were a few Christmas cards, mostly from people he had never met wishing him a merry holiday period and thanking him (years later) for vanquishing Voldemort.

"Oh, finally one from 'Mione," Harry said, finding her letter in amongst the pile.

"Is she well?" Severus asked, his eyes still on his paper.

He didn't care, not really, and Harry knew that, but he appreciated the man asking.

Harry nodded and said, "She's been offered a chance to develop her research further. Oh and it sounds like things are getting pretty serious between her and this Dimitri bloke."

"I take it she's staying over there for Christmas?"

"Mm. Sounds like she's reluctant to leave her Greek hunk," Harry said with a grin.

Severus rolled his eyes but the corner of his mouth twitched nevertheless. He was still reluctant to show much in the way of emotion, but he was more open than Harry had ever imagined he would be. He wasn't overly demonstrative and would have died rather than show affection in public, but in the privacy of their own home he treated Harry with a tenderness that Harry would have never believed possible.

"Maybe I should find myself a Greek hunk," Harry said teasingly and Severus eyed him over the corner of his newspaper.

"Be my guest," he said smoothly. "If you can find one who's as proficient at saving your backside as this lesser hunk of an Englishman."

Harry snorted and placed his coffee back on the table to stop from spilling it. "As if I would ever go for anything less than perfection."

"Oh dear Merlin," Severus groaned. "I think it's time you were on your way. I can't cope with declarations of sentimentality this early in the morning."

"You love my declarations," Harry said with a grin.

"I tolerate them, as I tolerate you," Severus replied, retreating behind the paper again.

"Liar," Harry said, scooping the last of his porridge into his mouth. He took one last swig of coffee and said, "Very well, I know when you want to get rid of me."

"I always want rid of you."

Harry got up and rounded the table, plucking the newspaper from Severus' hands and being met with a noise of protest. "You didn't want rid of me last night," Harry said with a wicked smile, settling himself in Severus' lap.

"That's what you think," Severus said with a smirk, resting his hands on Harry's hips, holding him gently in place.

"Even you aren't that good an actor," Harry said, his voice low. "Last night was…amazing," he said, running his hands over Severus' chest. He blushed as he said it, still a little embarrassed when it came to sex, but, under Severus' surprisingly careful tutelage, he was learning.

He had had a few brief encounters before he and Severus had got together and none of them had exactly rocked his world. His unwanted fame brought with it many problems, not least the issue that men and women up and down the country wanted bragging rights to bedding the slayer of Voldemort. Understandably it had made him reticent when it came to selecting a partner and he had never fully been able to trust anyone he had shared a bed with.

Of course, the irony wasn't lost on him that the person he had been able to place his trust in had once been a person he loathed beyond measure. The fact that Severus had become his safe haven, in more ways than one, was enough to make him cackle manically on occasion.

"It was rather memorable," Severus replied with a quirked eyebrow. "You can count it as one of your Christmas presents."

"Lucky me," Harry said, meaning it. He smiled at Severus and recognised the answering look the man gave. If one of them didn't make a move soon then they were both in very serious danger of never leaving their cosy quarters and sinfully large bed.

"You're going to be late," Severus warned with a smug smile.

"So I am," Harry said with a happy sigh. "It would be worth it."

"Go, you terrible man," Severus said, giving his backside a gentle swat.

Harry climbed off the man's lap reluctantly and took a moment to compose himself before saying, "I'll have to keep the memory of last night to tide me over."

He fetched his teaching robes from the peg by the door and shuffled into them, then grabbed a handful of his folders from the bookcase. He moved back to the breakfast table and gave Severus a chaste peck before saying, "Remember I won't be back until later tonight. I'm meeting Ron and Drake at the pub. Are you sure you won't join us?"

"Spending my time with one former student is enough, let alone three," Severus said with a smirk. "But do give them my best."

"I will," Harry said, a little disappointed that Severus had declined the invitation, but aware that the man probably wouldn't have enjoyed himself anyway. "I'll see you later then, keep the bed warm for me."

Harry's day was as laidback as he had intended it to be. There was no point trying to get any work out of people on the last day of term and he had no desire to administer tests or to cram information in minds that wouldn't take any of it in.

With the younger years he played games and had them act out the more fanciful passages from one of Lockhart's old books. With the older ones he conducted informal chats about the holidays and their potential for future careers.

He enjoyed teaching and he was good at it. He was the youngest teacher on the faculty and he had striven to engender respect in his pupils and to let them know that, despite being in his mid-20s, he wouldn't put up with any nonsense from them.

He ran his classrooms rather informally and encouraged discussion and debate rather than sitting in rows reading from textbooks. He held practical sessions and often took them out to the quidditch pitch to demonstrate techniques and practices.

He had reinstated the duelling club and ran it together with Severus. They held a session for the younger years on Tuesday evenings and one for the older years on Fridays. It had been a great success and the membership was a very healthy one.

Originally, Harry had suspected that many had joined to see how he and Severus worked together. The rumours had swirled around the school that Professor Snape and Professor Potter were seeing one another and when they moved in together the rumours had gone wild. Of course, they were nothing but professional when around their pupils and no one would have known that they were more than colleagues but they had seen no reason to hide the fact that they were a couple.

He managed to see Severus a couple of times throughout the day, although the man was absent from lunch. Harry would have to have words with him later; no doubt his partner had decided that his beloved potions were more worthy of his time than his stomach. It was a point of contention between them and Severus had accused Harry, on more than one occasion, of trying to domesticate him.

Harry was, of course, and made no secret of the fact. Severus had lived on his own for too long and was too used to letting his own care slide. It had been little wonder that his moods had often been so awful, given that he had often brewed until the early hours of the morning and had managed about an hour of sleep until he had had to be up for lessons. He ate only when he bordered on starvation and had lived on black coffee and the occasional whisky when the mood took him.

That had all changed when Harry had taken up residence in the dungeons. He had taken no nonsense from Severus, despite the man often behaving like a petulant toddler, and had rearranged the man's life so that it more closely resembled that of a successful man in his 40s rather than a teenager existing on caffeine and stress.

By the end of the day Harry was more than ready to get down to the pub. Luckily he hadn't drawn the short straw of chaperoning the students down to the train, so he left his teaching robes in the staff room and headed out.

"Nev! Come on," he called as he passed the greenhouses. "Time to get some Christmas cheer!"

"I'm coming," Neville replied, emerging from one of the greenhouses and removing his apron and gloves. "Severus not with you?" he asked, just about managing not to trip over the man's name.

"No desire to mingle with us whippersnappers," Harry said with a grin as they began to walk away from the castle and towards Hogsmeade.

It was nice to be back at Hogwarts with Neville there too. The man would always be shy and quiet but he had developed a confidence in recent years that helped to banish the nervous child he had been. They spent a lot of time together, especially when their free periods matched up, and Harry valued the friendship they had managed to forge as adults.

They made their way down to the village, bundled up tightly against the bitter wind. It had been threatening snow all week and Harry was hopeful that they would manage a white Christmas. Ron and Draco were waiting for them in The Three Broomsticks and had already got a round of drinks in.

"Here's to the little darlings being gone until January!" Harry said, raising his glass.

"You love it," Ron said, slinging his arm around Draco's shoulders.

"I do," Harry agreed, "but I can't deny I'm ready for the holidays."

"Me too," said Neville. "The end of term is always too stressful. The kids get giddy, it's horrible."

"You sound just like Severus," Harry said with a snort, and Neville looked vaguely horrified at the comparison. "Are you two done for now?" he asked Ron and Draco.

Draco nodded and said, "Thank Merlin. I don't know what I was thinking going for my post-graduate."

He had a vague, glassy look to his eyes as he spoke, and Ron smiled at him fondly as he said, "You were thinking of shirking work for another couple of years and letting me keep you in splendour and luxury."

"Ah yes. That must be it," Draco said, rolling his eyes. "The splendour of our tiny postage stamp of a flat and living from paycheque to paycheque."

"Well, my love, when you're a qualified civil engineer you can keep us in riches."

The fact that Draco had decided to pursue a career in the muggle world would have been surprising had people not known what the man had been through. Despite it being revealed that Draco had acted as a spy during the war, he was still reviled throughout the wizarding community.

In the early days he had received death threats and open hostility in the streets. In fact, Ron had only come back into the man's life when he had saved him from a baying mob and had sustained a broken nose for the pleasure.

A relationship had sprung up surprisingly quickly and Harry had been astonished when Ron had told him about it. He had decided to be supportive, despite his initial misgivings, and had been astounded when he had seen just how in love they were. They just made sense as a couple, even though on paper they would have never worked, and their devotion to one another was obvious.

"Are you still enjoying work, Ron?" Neville asked.

"When I don't have to deal with morons with their heads up their own arses," Ron answered with a grin.

Ron had become a quidditch promoter, and his natural knack for strategy had seen him excel where marketing and PR were concerned. He had had to develop a silver tongue for the industry, which Harry and Hermione both found hilarious, but he was good at his job and genuinely relished it.

"The New Year's going to be manic," he said, with one of those sighs that Harry had learnt meant he couldn't wait for it. "We have three big matches coming up and all of them have untested players. It'll be a job to draw the crowds."

"Merlin just listen to him," Draco said with a groan. "He's such a twat."

Ron gave him a cuff around the head and said, "You're sleeping on the floor tonight, you dickhead."

"Aren't they sweet together?" Neville asked Harry, the two of them quite used to Ron and Draco's unique idea of romance.

"Tugs at the heartstrings, doesn't it?"

"We can't all be sickening like you and Severus," Ron said, draining the last of his pint.

"We're not sickening!" Harry protested.

"Yes you are," Draco asserted. "It's hard to watch sometimes."

"Oh piss off. I'm going to get another round. Everyone on the same again?"

The others nodded and Draco said, "I'll come and give you a hand," standing and accompanying Harry to the bar.

Harry tried to signal the barmaid, but she was rushed off her feet with pre-Christmas revellers. "Bugger. I forgot how busy this place gets," Harry said with a sigh.

"I hate it. I'm only here out of a sense of deep friendship and loyalty to you pillocks," Draco replied with his usual sarcastic tone, but Harry knew that being around so many people from the magical community made him uncomfortable.

"Quite right too. If we could just get some service," Harry said, waving at the barmaid but failing to get her attention.

He was about to give a loud whistle when a group of people walked past the bar and knocked bodily into Draco. "Oi!" Harry said, immediately indignant. "Watch where you're going."

"Don't see why we should," said one of them, a big, mean-looking bugger. "Don't see why folk like him need to be in here in the first place.

"He has as much right to be here as anyone."

"Harry just leave it," Draco said wearily.

"Oh it speaks!" said the big bloke, his lip curling in a snarl. "I thought you'd buggered off out of the wizarding world for good. You really should have done."

"Why don't you go and stick your head down a toilet?" Harry said heatedly. "Draco did more for this world than any of you sorry dickheads could have ever hoped to do."

"He was on the other side!" the burly man protested, his face starting to go red.

"He was a spy, you moron!"

"Harry – "

"What's going on here?" Ron asked as he and Neville joined them.

"Oh, might have known you'd be here. The two of you come as pair, don't you? Shacked up together like a couple of poofs."

"I'm giving you five seconds to get lost," Ron said, his voice unnaturally calm.

"Why?" the bloke asked nastily. "Starting to fancy me? You fucking queer."

Ron's fist collided with the man's jaw in an instant and he was knocked heavily backwards into his baying group of friends. Harry was in the fray before he could blink, using his fists more readily than his wand.

Punches were thrown and Neville managed to crack one of their aggressor's noses with a well-timed elbow to the man's face. It took a while to separate them, but, once various patrons had lent a hand to assist, Harry found himself out on the street with his battered and bloodied and friends, while the others were dragged off in the opposite direction.

"Bloody hell," Harry said, hissing as he touched his split lip. "What a bunch of wankers."

"I think we gave as good as we got," Neville said with a grin, his eye beginning to swell.

"A minute more and I'd have killed that prick," Ron said with a growl, tilting Draco's chin gently to take a look at the man's face. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine. I just want to go home," Draco said with a sigh. "I knew it was a mistake coming here."

"You've every right to be here, Drake," Harry said, saddened by how resigned Draco looked. "It will change eventually, I promise."

"Maybe, but not tonight. Let's go home," Draco said, wrapping his arm around Ron's waist and tucking himself into the man's side.

"Sorry guys, looks like this one was a non-starter," Ron said with a rueful smile. "See you on Christmas Day," he added before apparating them both away.

"Well, I guess that's us done for the night," Neville said.

Harry nodded and looped his arm through Neville's, saying, "Best get back to the castle and away from trouble."

They made their way back up to Hogwarts and parted company in the entrance hall. Merlin only knew what Severus would make of the state of him, Harry thought as he plodded back to the dungeons, pleased that there were no pupils to see him with a split lip and torn robes.

"I'm back early," he called as he let himself into their rooms. Severus wasn't in the living room but he thought he heard a strange thud from the bedroom. Frowning, he crossed the room and paused at the bedroom door.

"Severus?" he called and heard a strange scuffling noise from within. He pushed the door open and found Severus on his hands and knees trying to push something under the bed.

"What are you doing?" he asked, baffled.

"Nothing," Severus replied, rather too quickly, still trying to shove whatever it was under the bed.

"Severus what is that? What are you trying to hide?"

"I'm not hiding anything, I – What the bloody hell has happened to you?" Severus asked, finally looking up and seeing Harry's battered state. He rose to his feet and took Harry's face in his hands. "Who did this?"

"Just a couple of meatheads at the pub. They had a problem with Drake…and gay people apparently. It all got a bit messy."

"You got in a fight?" Severus asked incredulously.

"It was really the only course of action," Harry replied, gently removing himself from Severus' hold. "What were you doing before I came in?" he asked, and, to his amazement, Severus' cheeks flushed.

"Nothing. Just…uh…a few last-minute Christmas things."

Harry's eyes narrowed and he peered over Severus' shoulder, spying a roll of wrapping paper sticking out from under the bed. "You bought my presents months ago. You boasted about how prepared you were and said that I was a cretin for leaving all my Christmas shopping so late."

"Well…it's not for you," Severus said, his eyes darting around the room as his cheeks became impossibly redder. "Look, can you just give me a few minutes and then I'll be – "

"What are you up to?" Harry asked, suddenly hit with a horrible wave of dread. Was Severus cheating on him? Was there someone else in his life that he was buying presents for, someone Severus was involved with? The thought was sickening and Harry felt his pulse quicken uncomfortably.

"Nothing," Severus repeated, his evasive attitude worrying Harry further.

"Severus what the hell is going on? Who are you buying presents for?"

"Harry – "

"No! I want you tell me! Are you seeing someone else?"

"What?" Severus asked, his eyes wide. "Of course I'm bloody not! How on earth could you think that?"

"Well can you blame me? You're behaving really strangely and you won't tell me what you're up to! You're really freaking me out."

"Harry, you can't honestly think that I'm cheating on you. Have you so little faith in me?" Severus asked, looking truly hurt.

Harry's worry deflated and he said, "Of course I don't think you're cheating on me. Would you please just tell me what's going on?"

Looking defeated, Severus sighed and said, "Fine. If you insist, I'll show you."

He got back down on his knees and reached under the bed, pulling an assortment of presents out. "They're for the children who are here over the Christmas holidays," he said, refusing to meet Harry's eyes.

Harry wasn't entirely sure that he had heard the man properly. Severus Snape, organising presents for the children with nowhere else to go at Christmas? Had the world tilted off its axis?

"You…you've bought these?" Harry asked, feeling utterly dumbfounded.

If it was possible, Severus coloured further. He shook his head and said, "I…I made them. They're mostly just simple, everyday potions, things that might be useful over the Christmas period."

Harry slowly knelt down beside the man, wondering if perhaps he had stepped into an alternate universe. He loved Severus, that much was true, but he was perfectly aware of his faults and shortcomings, as well as the fact that he was not a sentimental man, nor a particularly generous one.

"Do you…do you do this every year?" Harry asked gently.

Severus nodded and finally looked up to meet Harry's eyes. "Ever since I came to teach here."

"That's over 20 years!" Harry said in amazement. "I…I don't know what to say," he said honestly.

"There's nothing _to_ say," Severus said brusquely. "It's not a big deal."

"It kind of is," Harry said, still feeling side-swiped. "I'm sorry, I'm just…bewildered. What…what prompted you to start doing this?"

"It isn't important," Severus said, gathering the presents together and looking very much as though he would like to make his escape at any moment.

"Severus," Harry said gently, staying the man's movements, "tell me. I'm not making fun, I promise. I'm just a little surprised, that's all."

Looking resigned, Severus leant against the foot of the bed and stretched his long legs out in front of him. "A professor used to do it for the students when I was a pupil. I never went home for Christmas, there was never any point. I spent it alone and…the professor's present was the only one I ever received. I…I suppose it stuck with me. I wanted to be able to do something for the students who have as miserable a home life as I had."

"Oh Severus," Harry said, shifting to sit next him. "I didn't know. I'm sorry."

"It's in the past," Severus said with a shrug. "I'm happy to say that my home life has much improved in recent times," he said, looking sideways at Harry with a crooked smile.

Harry returned it and slid his hand into Severus' larger one. "You'll never stop surprising me," he said, realising that there was so much to this amazing man that few ever got to see. He felt privileged, honoured by the fact that Severus had chosen to share these things with him.

"I'm not quite the monster that everyone would like to paint me as being."

"I've been aware of that for some time now," Harry said softly. "You think I could have fallen in love with a man who didn't possess so much depth and complexity?"

Severus' expression softened, as it always did when Harry made declarations of his feelings. He always accepted such declarations with a kind of reverence that made Harry feel as though they were sharing something deeply special.

"Would you like some help delivering these?" Harry asked, giving Severus' hand a squeeze.

"I can think of nothing I'd like better."

"Then perhaps we can come back here, cuddle up in front of the fire and discuss what kind of wedding we'd like."

"I beg your pardon?" Severus said as Harry's pulse raced.

He had planned to do this over Christmas, had been planning it since September, in fact, but he hadn't intended for it to just slip out the way it had. He'd been so overcome with his feelings for the man that he'd been caught up in the intensity of it all.

"Well, I'm being presumptuous of course," Harry said with forced nonchalance. "You might not want to marry me. Perhaps you're only putting up with me for a bit of company."

"You're…you're asking me to…to…"

"If you fancy it," Harry said with a shrug, his heart thumping in his chest. "I think we'd make rather striking grooms. And think of all the presents we'd get; we could make a killing."

"Harry…are you serious?"

"Well I don't go around asking people to marry me every day of the week. It's up to you, you won't hurt my feelings if you say no."

The very opposite was true, of course. If Severus said no Harry wasn't sure whether his heart could take it. He would have to retreat to a place of sanctuary miles away and tend to his wounded pride and shattered feelings as best he could.

"You're really asking me to marry you?" Severus asked, his eyes narrow.

"Oh for Merlin's sake, Severus!" Harry huffed. "Yes I'm asking you to marry me but if you don't want to then just say and we can – "

The rest of Harry's sentence was cut off by Severus grabbing the man's chin and crushing their lips together. Taken aback, Harry didn't respond for a second, until his baser senses kicked in and responded for him. He returned the kiss, the adrenaline ebbing away slowly as a muted corner of his brain told him that this was probably a good sign.

"Was that a yes?" Harry asked, pulling back.

"I should say so, Mr Potter," Severus replied, his voice a low purr, his smile wicked. "I should say so indeed."

Harry's face split into a grin and he wrapped his arms around Severus' neck. "Merry Christmas, Severus."

"Merry Christmas, Harry."

* * *

**AN:** Merry Christmas, my darlings. I hope you enjoyed this festive Snarry, please leave a review and let me know.


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